Success Stories: Jim Cryan Finds Business with Carl Gerhardt

Meet Jim Cryan. Jim opened a Dental Fix franchise in Reno, NV in 2016. Dental Fix delivers immediate on-site hand piece repairs and equipment service and sales, through a dedicated mobile network of highly trained and successful industry professionals. Before owning his own franchise, Jim was facility manager for an automotive parts supplier. He had grown tired of the corporate environment and was searching for his own business. He was referred to Carl Gerhardt, FranNet consultant by a friend that had met Carl at a local Governor’s Conference on small business.

Jim had done some investigating for businesses on his own. He had interest in a UPS store franchise. However, after meeting with Carl and building a business model he was open to considering other alternatives. During a meeting with Jim and his wife Lisa they were able to identify that Dental Fix was a great fit for Jim. He wanted a franchise where he did not have to deal with a lot of employees. Here is Jim’s comment: “He sat down with my wife and I and got to know us. He just asked all the right questions and made sure that we’d be a good fit for a franchise. He definitely took his time. From the very first, he brought lists of ideas and we had to do an assessment to see what would be a good fit. Then, he came back with one that would match our profile. He brought back franchises that I wasn’t expecting.”

Jim followed the FranNet process to the letter. After identifying the business model and narrowing down the list of franchises he did a great job of due diligence. He called numerous franchisees to validate the Dental Fix model. Then, after attending a Discovery day at Dental Fix headquarters to meet the home office team they were ready to make the commitment.

Jim’s wife Lisa was very supportive and helpful during the entire process. She continued her career as a project manager for a large corporation but planned to help Jim with some of the administrative duties in her spare time.
The Cryan’s are a good example of taking the time to properly determine if a franchise is a good fit and using a proven process to identify the best franchise for them. According to them, franchising takes much of the fear out of owning their own business. As Jim stated, “

“With the franchise, you get the brand name. You come out of the gate a lot stronger and you have a lot more working for you in the background. Customer support and so on.”